Feeling down? Take a break from Facebook to lift your spirits

If you are feeling blue and cannot figure out why, taking an occasional break from Facebook might do wonders, suggests a research.

The study showed that regular use of social networking such as Facebook can negatively affect your emotional well-being and satisfaction with life, but you do not have to quit Facebook altogether.

Simply changing your social networking behaviour and taking an occasional break from Facebook may lift your spirits, said the study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social Networking.

In the study, Morten Tromholt from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, described an experiment in which he gave more than 1,000 participants a pre-test and then randomly assigned them to one of two conditions — continue using Facebook as usual or stop using Facebook for a week.

After one week without Facebook, the treatment group showed statistically significant improvement in well-being, with gains varying depending on the amount of time they previously spent on Facebook and whether or not they were passive users and tended to envy others on Facebook.